


Ordinary Oddness

by EtoileGarden



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Light hurt comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-22 10:43:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22315027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtoileGarden/pseuds/EtoileGarden
Summary: Set between Raven Boys and Dream Thieves, a tiny fic that's been haunting my brain-Adam had just gotten back from a late closing shift at Boyds.Had wolfed down three pieces of stale bread in the kitchenette, downed a couple of cups of water, walked into his room and had almost had a heart attack.
Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 28
Kudos: 325





	Ordinary Oddness

**Author's Note:**

> Wow my first fic for the year! DW, it's still not edited :)

Adam was used to things...out of the ordinary. Used to rolling with whatever weird or painful punch life threw at him. He’d grown up hiding his own oddness, had barely flinched when Gansey brought up the subject of magic and hidden kings and wishes for the first time. 

He was trailer trash attending one of the most prestigious schools around. He’d witnessed real magic with his own eyes. A beautiful strange girl who seemed to like his oddities chose to hold his hand. 

  
  


Ronan Lynch standing outside his small window in his trailer bedroom at just past midnight was somehow one of the weirdest things to happen so far. 

Adam had just gotten back from a late closing shift at Boyds. Had wolfed down three pieces of stale bread in the kitchenette, downed a couple of cups of water, walked into his room and had almost had a heart attack. 

  
  


“What the hell, Lynch!” He hissed, striding over to the window and easing the thin pane of glass open. “What’re you doin’ here?” 

He couldn’t be sure if it was only luck that Robert was out of town for the weekend, or if Ronan knew this and that was why he was willing to risk coming here. Alice was no issue, she’d taken her sleeping pills hours earlier and wouldn’t be woken by anything short of an earthquake. 

Which - 

Well, comparing Ronan to an earthquake wasn’t that much of a hyperbole. 

“In the area,” Ronan grunted, the edges of his words sliding oddly out of his mouth. “Lemme in.” 

“Uh,” Adam said, “What?” 

“C’mon,” Ronan added, leaned forwards enough to press his face against the part of the window that no longer opened, his cheek sticking to the pane, smudging a little blood onto it. 

Adam could tell him to leave. They were friends but that didn’t mean that Adam was responsible for him. Didn’t mean he had to put up with bullshit. Didn’t mean he shouldn’t send Ronan off to Monmouth. 

“Go ‘round the front,” Adam huffed, “I’ll let you in. Quietly.” 

Ronan, in the spirit of ‘quietly’, didn’t reply, just unpeeled himself from the window and walked off in the dark. 

Adam left his window cracked open, let himself out of his room carefully. He paused a moment to listen for his mother’s snoring, just in case, and then returned to the front door he’d only just come through and unlocked it. 

He couldn’t tell if the blood belonged to Ronan, or if Ronan was just wearing it, because he brushed past Adam quickly and made off towards Adam’s room. 

Honestly, Adam was kind of impressed that Ronan knew where it was, he had been here once, on a rare day that Adam’s parents weren’t home, and Adam hadn’t even allowed him or Gansey or Noah into the house while he dashed to his room to grab his notebook. They must have been able to see his path through the house through the open door. 

Well. Not that there were very many options for where Adam’s room could be in this tiny fucking house. 

He followed Ronan to his room after relocking the front door, shut his bedroom door behind them both - not that it would do much, as thin as it was. 

“What are you doing here?” Adam repeated, rubbed the heel of his hand over his cheekbone, trying to stave off a yawn. “What’s the blood from?” 

For a moment Ronan looked surprised, his hand lifting halfway to his face and then dropping back to his side. He shrugged, slumped backwards until he had sat down on Adam’s bed in one smooth yet sloppy movement. 

“Got in a fight,” he said, like it wasn’t a big deal. 

This  _ was _ Ronan so it probably wasn’t a big deal. Wouldn’t have been a big deal if he didn’t follow it up the way he did. 

The way he followed it up was by shuddering out such a harsh breath it was impossible to mistake it for anything but what it was; a sharp sob. 

“Oh,” Adam said, which, well, was possibly a dumb thing to say in response, but. It wasn’t exactly a situation he was versed in. 

Ronan swiped, looking quite furious, at his face, sniffed hard, shuddered out one more full body shivering sob, and then pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. Adam still didn’t know where the blood came from, or, who the blood came from. He sat down, cautious, on the edge of his bed, leaving a small space between them for any fury Ronan might let out. 

He really wanted to ask again why Ronan had come  _ here _ of all places, to  _ Adam _ of all people, but, he hadn’t gotten an answer the first two times he’d asked, and he didn’t like having to keep asking for something someone wasn’t willing to give. 

“Are you hurt?” He asked instead, because that was something he could do something about. 

Ronan shook his head, which was disappointing because now Adam wasn’t sure what his next step was. Off course, it was also  _ good _ because it meant Ronan wasn’t hurt. 

He still had his hands over his eyes, but his breathing was slow and even. Adam waited a few seconds more, to see if Ronan would lower his hands, or say more, or anything, really, and then stood up and crossed over his small room to grab tissues. 

Ronan only lowered his hands when Adam began wiping the blood off of his cheek with a piece of damp tissue, fixed Adam with a look which would have been a lot more stern looking if his eyes weren’t still so watery. 

“Are you fucking seriously using spit to clean my face?” 

Adam shrugged. He wasn’t about to go back out of his room and risk waking his mother with doors opening and shutting. Ronan could deal with a little bit of spit, especially if this was someone else's blood. Surely spit was less gross than blood. 

“Gross, man,” Ronan said. His eyes might have been still giving away the fact that he didn’t appear to be 100% emotional stable right now, but his voice was just as steady and brutal as always, though dropped down about 500% in volume. “I’m not your kid.” 

“Thank God,” Adam replied dryly, tossed the dirtied tissue towards the small bin in the corner of the room. “So. Did’ya fight with Kavinsky?” 

Kavinsky was a new element in their life. 

Or. 

Not  _ new _ new, more like a background figure suddenly thinking they have a leading role. More like Kavinsky was a bastard who knew how to trick other bastards like Ronan into being as shitty as him. More like Kavinsky was a bucket of trouble ready to fall on someone’s head. 

Adam kind of hated him. Not just because he was insufferably rich and liked to remind people of it even at their equally insufferably rich school. Not just because he dealt dangerous drugs and ideas to people as freely as sugar. Not even just because the rumours about him being a murderer and a rapist were almost certainly true (though Adam did definitely hate him for that). Adam hated him mostly for the fact that he had somehow made Ronan believe that the two of them were made of the same sort. Made Ronan believe that spending time with him and his gang wasn’t going to end up in shit. 

“No,” Ronan grunted, surprising. “Gansey.” 

More surprising. 

“What?” Adam asked, voice louder than intended. He lowered it and continued. “Is that his blood?” 

“No,” Ronan grunted again, voice hoarse under the grit of it. “Like I’d fucking hit him, man. It’s my blood.” 

Adam hadn’t seen a cut under the blood when he’d wiped it away. Still couldn’t. Also couldn’t believe that Gansey would  _ hit _ Ronan.

“My nose bled earlier,” Ronan said, words stiff and annoyed. “After I left Gansey. Fuck.” 

“Okay,” Adam said. “You said you weren’t hurt.” 

“Fuck off,” Ronan growled, cleared his throat, exhaled loudly. “I’m fine now. I’m  _ not _ hurt.” 

“So?” Adam prodded. “What the hell happened, Lynch? You run into a wall? Why’d you fight with Gansey?” 

“School shit,” Ronan said, which might have sounded like a non-answer, but was certainly enough of an answer for now. “Slammed into my steering wheel while racing.” 

So Kavinsky had been involved. 

Adam was ready to risk repeating himself again now, his curiosity for answers only growing with the information he was receiving. 

“So,” he said, “why are you here?” 

Ronan looked at him like Adam was the crazy one. Like, of  _ course _ Ronan was here. Like it was normal for Ronan to just turn up here. 

“I don’t want Gansey to see me like this,” Ronan said, brusque.

So it wasn’t about Adam at all really, which he knew. He didn’t want Gansey to know that their fight actually upset Ronan. Didn’t want Gansey to know he’d been racing. Didn’t want Gansey to have the comfort of knowing Ronan was home safe? Adam’s stomach felt bitter. He didn’t say anything. 

“So?” Ronan said. 

Adam raised his eyebrows. 

“Can I crash here or not?” Ronan said, impatient already as if he’d asked it a million times. 

  
  


There was nowhere here for Ronan to crash. It was risky for Ronan to stay here. If Adam’s mother found out, he’d be in trouble. He’d have to share the narrow bed with Adam. What if he brought a dream back and burned down the trailer? What if Ronan got into the bed with Adam and realised just how deep in the lap of poverty Adam was and became disgusted with his thin sheets and ripped blanket and stiff mattress and - 

  
  


“Whatever,” Adam said, like he didn’t care. “You gotta be out of here before six, though. Mum gets up then.” 

“Whatever,” Ronan threw back at him. “I bags the wall side.” 

That was fine. This meant that Adam would almost definitely wake up when Ronan tried to get up, and he’d be able to get him out of the trailer without tipping his mother off. 

Ronan was already kicking his boots off, a little piece of gravel knocking from the tread in them and skittering across the floor. 

Adam wasn’t sure what was the most shocking part of this whole thing. Ronan being here in the middle of the night? Ronan  _ asking to sleep with him _ ? Ronan crying, if only for a second? He climbed into his bed behind Ronan, tugging at his blanket to reclaim a little more from Ronan’s already iron grip. His knees jostled the backs of Ronan’s as he shuffled around on the narrow space until he managed to slot himself into the remaining space. 

Ronan was quiet. Already asleep? Adam wished he was already asleep. He closed his eyes. 

“Um,” Ronan said into the quiet. Adam kept his eyes closed but made a small noise of acknowledgement. “It might be more comfortable if you put your arm around me.” 

It probably would serve a bit as an anchor to make sure he didn’t fall off of the bed. 

“I’m fine,” Adam said, because he was. He had slept in worse conditions than this by far. 

It was quiet again for a long moment, the only noise Adam’s breath, his mother’s snoring, and the absence of Ronan’s own breathing, like he was holding in some biting comment. 

Sometimes, at the very end of the day, Adam’s brain slowed from its constant rush of anxiously thinking about everything to instead working as fast as water wearing away stone. 

Ronan hadn’t been asking to be a gracious guest in trying to make sure his host was comfortable. Perhaps Adam was just still shell shocked from the fact that Ronan Lynch was here in the little hours, upset and unusual. He shifted a little more onto his side, let his hand lead the way over Ronan’s waist until his arm was wrapped firmly around it, and his palm lay flat on Ronan’s chest, until he could feel Ronan’s breath easing slowly in and out again against his fingers. 

Ronan didn’t say thank you, that would probably have been too much. 

  
  
  


-

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
